PURTON staged their annual Men's Top Score Triples gala last Sunday.

The scoring system in this competition differs from the norm with only the first four bowls counting on each end thus giving a total of 10 points to be won per end.

In the gala each team played five games of eight ends.

The position after each round of games were:

Round 1: 1 L Cox (Garrards) 53 pts; 2 Max Holland (Purton) 49.

Round 2: 1 M Holland 102pts, 2 S Heseltine (Chippenham T ) 96.

Round 3: 1 S Heseltine 142pts, 2 M Holland 139.

Round 4: 1 I Mellor (Skewen , W Glamorgan) 194pts, 2 S Heseltine 193, 3 M Holland 191.

The draw for rinks resulted in the first and second teams after four rounds, playing each other.

The triple from Skewen, which included Steve Williams, the current indoor short mat world champion, proved too strong for Chippenham and ran out 50-30 victors.

This margin was sufficient to secure overall victory with 244 points.

Second place went to home player Chris Cheesley's triple which also included fellow Purton members Ian Williams a current Welsh indoor under 25 international and Doug Thompson with 228 points. Two points further back were Peter Latter's triple from West Witney.

The prize for the highest score in any game throughout the day went to Peter Radband (Carterton).

"The day was a tremendous success again" said organiser Ray Sowden.

"It is the fourth time we have staged this special triples competition and hope that the event will now be firmly established on the calendar for those bowlers that have played in it to date."